After an incredibly busy week we wanted to update members and fans on some significant developments.
There was double good news for Spurs fans last week with two positive announcements on ticket pricing. First, the Club agreed to freeze the price of all home tickets for the third season running. This came after the announcement last year that prices would rise by around 2%.
Second, Premier League clubs unanimously agreed to cap the price of away tickets at £30 for the next three years. This measure will save a Spurs fan who travels to every away game over a season £284 based on 2015/16 pricing.
These are significant victories.
There was double good news for Spurs fans last week with two positive announcements on ticket pricing. First, the Club agreed to freeze the price of all home tickets for the third season running. This came after the announcement last year that prices would rise by around 2%.
Second, Premier League clubs unanimously agreed to cap the price of away tickets at £30 for the next three years. This measure will save a Spurs fan who travels to every away game over a season £284 based on 2015/16 pricing.
These are significant victories.
Those announcements undoubtedly came about as a result of campaigning by supporter groups over the last few years, something that created a climate of opinion where it became clear the clubs had to agree to do something to genuinely address the issues being raised over the price of tickets in an era of unprecedented wealth for the game.
We’ve played our part in campaigning and discussion at national level, and also in putting the case at our own club. We know the Club has not always agreed with specific measures we called for. But we believe it should be given credit for listening to the views of fans and agreeing to these important measures on both home and away ticket pricing. Genuine dialogue between the Club and its fans can produce results, as we have always said. And fans can achieve practical results if we act together.
Our attention now turns to discussions about pricing in our year away from White Hart Lane, and the pricing structure for our new stadium. At a national level, we will continue to contribute to the discussion about the future focus of campaigning around prices.
Hot on the heels of this good news came the need to do some very different work. As many of you will now have heard, a significant number of Spurs fans visiting Signal Iduna Park for our Europa League tie against Dortmund experienced serious problems entering the ground, with severe crushing and assaults by both Dortmund club stewards and the police.
Several members of the Trust board were caught in the crush and witnessed the scenes. They contacted Spurs officials as soon as they could and together observed some of the shocking scenes outside, as well as providing help and advice to shaken supporters. THFC set up a meeting with BVB officials immediately after the game, where the view from the fans’ perspective was firmly put.
This meeting will be followed up in the next few days, with UEFA and European supporter networks also contacted. We were widely quoted in the press putting the fans’ perspective, and our appeal for fans to send in accounts of their experience has led many to write in with details of what happened to them. We have also been contacted by one of the BVB fan groups expressing their concern at what happened. BVB fans were also caught in the crush and both sets of supporters helped each other amid some dangerous scenes. THFC has also registered its concern about the treatment of fans.
Sadly, the Dortmund police seem to have moved quickly to pin the blame for what happened solely on Spurs fans. We will challenge this, and the accounts we have received will help us to do this. At the moment, we are not sure what recompense, if any, we can secure for our own fans, but lessons must be learned from what happened so that no fan has to experience what some of our support went through last Thursday. The voices of our fans will be heard.
News of Trust activities will continue to appear on this site and in our regular monthly newsletter to members. It has been a significant week and we’d like to thank all our members for their support, and to welcome the many new members currently signing up.
THST 13 March 2016
We’ve played our part in campaigning and discussion at national level, and also in putting the case at our own club. We know the Club has not always agreed with specific measures we called for. But we believe it should be given credit for listening to the views of fans and agreeing to these important measures on both home and away ticket pricing. Genuine dialogue between the Club and its fans can produce results, as we have always said. And fans can achieve practical results if we act together.
Our attention now turns to discussions about pricing in our year away from White Hart Lane, and the pricing structure for our new stadium. At a national level, we will continue to contribute to the discussion about the future focus of campaigning around prices.
Hot on the heels of this good news came the need to do some very different work. As many of you will now have heard, a significant number of Spurs fans visiting Signal Iduna Park for our Europa League tie against Dortmund experienced serious problems entering the ground, with severe crushing and assaults by both Dortmund club stewards and the police.
Several members of the Trust board were caught in the crush and witnessed the scenes. They contacted Spurs officials as soon as they could and together observed some of the shocking scenes outside, as well as providing help and advice to shaken supporters. THFC set up a meeting with BVB officials immediately after the game, where the view from the fans’ perspective was firmly put.
This meeting will be followed up in the next few days, with UEFA and European supporter networks also contacted. We were widely quoted in the press putting the fans’ perspective, and our appeal for fans to send in accounts of their experience has led many to write in with details of what happened to them. We have also been contacted by one of the BVB fan groups expressing their concern at what happened. BVB fans were also caught in the crush and both sets of supporters helped each other amid some dangerous scenes. THFC has also registered its concern about the treatment of fans.
Sadly, the Dortmund police seem to have moved quickly to pin the blame for what happened solely on Spurs fans. We will challenge this, and the accounts we have received will help us to do this. At the moment, we are not sure what recompense, if any, we can secure for our own fans, but lessons must be learned from what happened so that no fan has to experience what some of our support went through last Thursday. The voices of our fans will be heard.
News of Trust activities will continue to appear on this site and in our regular monthly newsletter to members. It has been a significant week and we’d like to thank all our members for their support, and to welcome the many new members currently signing up.
THST 13 March 2016